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It’s that time of year again — turkey with sweet cranberry sauce, mouth-watering chocolate truffles, and a sprinkling of nutmeg on warming eggnog… and it’s all thanks to bugs. To celebrate the sheer wealth and variety of bug wildlife, Buglife has teamed up with the children from St Augustine’s School, Peterborough to produce a new version of the traditional Christmas song – welcome to the Twelve Bugs of Christmas!

So, that was Britain. However, in the USA they have a version of this Christmas carol as well, with different species, and thirteen, not twelve bugs.

You’ve heard “The 12 Days of Christmas,” beginning with a single “partridge in a pear tree” and ending with “12 drummers drumming.” In between: two turtle doves, three french hens, four calling birds, five gold rings, six geese-a-laying, seven swans-a-swimming, eight maids-a-milking, nine ladies dancing, 10 lords-a-leaping, and 11 pipers piping.

But have you heard “The 13 Bugs of Christmas?”

Back in 2010, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology) and yours truly came up with a song about “The 13 Bugs of Christmas.” Presented at the Department of Entomology’s holiday party, it drew roaring applause. Then U.S. News featured it when reporter Paul Bedard picked it up.

It’s still making the rounds, via tweets.

“The 13 Bugs of Christmas” is about a psyllid in a pear tree, six lice a’laying, 10 locusts leaping and 11 queen bees piping. Beekeepers know that distinctive sound of a queen bee piping.

“We attempted to keep the wording as close as possible for ‘The 12 Bugs of Christmas’ and then we opted to spotlight some new agricultural pests in the next stanza,” said Mussen, an Extension apiculturist with the department since 1976 who writes the bimonthly from the UC apiaries newsletter. He will be retiring in June 2014.

The song:

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a psyllid in a pear tree.

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the sixth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven boatmen swimming, six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me eight ants a’milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a’milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the tenth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 10 locusts leaping, nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a’milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

On the 11th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 11 queen bees piping, 10 locusts leaping, nine mayflies dancing, eight ants a’milking, seven boatmen swimming, six lice a’laying, five golden bees, four calling cicadas, three French flies, two tortoise beetles and a psyllid in a pear tree

Mussen, who retired this year after 38 years of service, noted that “Tropilaelaps clareae” is a honey bee mite from Asia, as is the well-known Varroa mite (Varroa destructor), which was first detected in the United States (Wisconsin) in 1987 and is now beekeepers’ No. 1 problem.

It’s unlikely, however, that “Tropilaelaps clareae” and “Varroa destructor” will become part of any other Christmas song…but you never know…

This is the trailer for the inspiring new feature length documentary Sylvia Pankhurst: Everything is possible now available on DVD from the charity WORLDwrite. The full film is packed with little-known facts, rare archive imagery, expert interviews and exclusive testimony from Sylvia’s son, Richard Pankhurst and his wife Rita. The campaigns Sylvia led embraced far more than ‘votes for women‘ as she uniquely understood the fight for democratic rights required a challenge to the system. For full details visit here.

Katherine Connelly tells of how the radical Suffragette gave East End kids a glimmer of hope in the depths of World War I

There was little to celebrate at Christmas in 1915. The war that was supposed to have ended the Christmas before had turned into mass slaughter in the trenches which seemed destined to go on for many years more.

Sylvia Pankhurst, the socialist militant Suffragette and leader of the working-class East London Federation of the Suffragettes (ELFS), witnessed the devastation that this second year of war inflicted on the East End.

After German U-boats sank the US passenger ship Lusitania in early May 1915, newspaper front pages shrieked for revenge.

There were anti-German riots in the East End, two ELFS members who had married German men found their homes under attack, while another member was hurt in her efforts to stop the rioting.

The first bombing raid on the overcrowded East End came in the night at the end of May. The next morning Sylvia Pankhurst found her roof covered in shrapnel.

And yet when this dark year had drawn to a close, Sylvia Pankhurst organised huge children’s parties in the East End of London.

Over 900 children came to the party in Bow Baths. Two days later a party was held for their parents and there were more parties held close by in Poplar and Canning Town.

Support for the parties poured in from anti-war socialists, Suffragettes and pacifists.

George Lansbury, editor of the socialist newspaper the Daily Herald and formerly an east London Labour MP, performed a puppet show for the children.

The radical playwright George Bernard Shaw judged the essays the children wrote about the party, sending each one a witty appraisal of their work in which he pretended to fine them for making him undertake such work as “counting 22 kisses for Miss Pankhurst” — in fact every child who entered won a shilling and sixpence.

Norah Smyth, who had once drilled the “People’s Army,” a band of east London men and women who armed themselves to defend Suffragettes from the police, dressed up as Father Christmas and delivered the presents.

The scale and success of the parties were testament to years of radical campaigning in east London.

They reflected the local community’s mounting anger at the war and its determination to build a fundamentally different society for their children.

In 1912 Sylvia Pankhurst decided to organise a Suffragette campaign in impoverished east London.

In contrast with her mother and elder sister, Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, Sylvia believed that if the Suffragette campaign was to be successful it had to involve the vast majority of women, not just a small elite.

From the birth of New Unionism with the matchwomen’s strike of 1888 to the dock strike of 1912, the East End had proved the immense power that organised workers could have.

The new ELFS drew great strength from uniting their demands for political representation with the social and economic struggles of workers.

Soon striking women workers were joining the east London Suffragettes, while local trade union branches and large sections of the community were defending the Suffragettes from police attacks and joining their demonstrations.

With the outbreak of the first world war, the British government demanded that everyone make sacrifices for the sake of national unity. But it was the poorest in society who were forced to sacrifice the most.

The ELFS campaigned against the way in which the prosecution of the war was particularly devastating the lives of working-class women.

In response to the poverty caused by wartime unemployment, the rocketing cost of food and rent, and the unequal pay and dangerous conditions for women workers in the new munitions industry, the ELFS organised demonstrations, deputations and a range of schemes including affordable restaurants, clinics, nurseries, legal advice and even their own toy-making factory.

In part, the children’s parties that Sylvia Pankhurst organised at the beginning of 1916 were an extension of these acts of community solidarity which particularly focused on alleviating the suffering that war was inflicting on working women and their children.

This suffering was soon cruelly brought home in the midst of the celebrations.

A highlight of the children’s party at Bow had been a pageant in which the free-spirited role of “the Spirit of the Woods” had been given to 16-year-old Rose Pengelly who entertained the children by dancing and playing the panpipes.

Rose had met Sylvia two years before when she joined the Junior Suffragettes Club and led her workmates out on strike.

Back at work after the pageant, and looking forward to dancing at the upcoming party, her hand was crushed under the machine she worked at.

Her boss would not pay for a taxi and so she had to walk to the station and take a train to the hospital where, after waiting for hours to be seen, her thumb and two fingers were amputated.

If the parties were a short-lived moment of joy amidst these bitter experiences, they also expressed the east London Suffragettes’ hopes for the new year. In doing so they captured a significant changing attitude to the war.

In August 1914 not all the ELFS members had opposed the war. Some supported the war aims, believing the government’s claims that the war was just and would soon be over. Now, after 16 months of war, the pageant at the ELFS party called for an end to the war.

At the front of the pageant two toddlers held banners calling for “Peace” and “Plenty.”

The pageant included a “Spirit of Peace” who was played by Joan Beauchamp, soon to become the editor of the conscientious objectors’ journal Tribunal and who was to suffer imprisonment for her anti-war activities.

The new year saw the ELFS turn to explicit anti-war campaigning which increasingly reflected a growing popular mood. By December 1916 they were holding peace demonstrations at the gates of the east London docks and Victoria Park.

In austerity-struck Spain, street protesters are screaming for the government to resign over the latest corruption scandal. At the head of the conservative People’s Party (PP), Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he will speak publicly on the matter on Saturday. It concerns allegations that members benefited from a slush fund fed by private companies for years.

Spain’s main rival newspapers, the liberal El Pais and conservative El Mundo flushed the story into the open two weeks ago, revealing excerpts of almost two decades of handwritten accounts that it said were maintained by People’s Party treasurers.

The papers said the accounts showed more than a decade of payments to Rajoy of more than 25,000 euros per year. This has undermined his reputation for honesty.

Former PP treasurer Luis Barcenas stepped down in 2009 when judges began to investigate his possible involvement in alleged illegal payments from builders and other businesses which won government contracts.

A PP source said the allegations, if confirmed, raise serious ethical questions especially because politicians granted large numbers of development contracts during Spain’s building boom.

…

The party said its payments to its leaders and staff were always legal.

Until recently, according to a PP source, Spanish political parties were allowed to receive anonymous donations, but they had to appear in the official accounts.

The alleged payments may therefore not necessarily be illegal, but the income would have had to be declared in tax statements.

Rajoy has been in office as prime minister for just over a year.

In many Christmas speeches by VIPs, one can hear about themes like togetherness.

THOUSANDS of young people are facing homelessness this Christmas with almost one in five forced to crash in unsafe places in the last year, charity Centrepoint warned yesterday.

The charity highlighted that 18 per cent of 16 to 25-year-olds polled were forced to sleep in the street, in cars and on night buses as they had nowhere else to stay. Meanwhile 20 per cent had to sofa surf.

Comfort Orotayo, 21, from south London, spent last Christmas at her friend’s house, having been homeless for four months after a family breakdown.

In the new year, she received help from Centrepoint and stayed in one of their hostels for most of the year before moving into her own flat.

Ms Orotayo said homelessness can happen to “anybody” and said circumstances can “change within an instant.”

She added: “I just think everybody should take time, before they die, to at least chat to a homeless person, because I swear, the conversation you will have will change your life, or change your outlook on life, and change your perspective on life, your perception of people.”

Centrepoint director Balbir Chatrik cited “family breakdown” as the most common cause for young people becoming homeless and said people usually stay in a Centrepoint hostel for anywhere between six months and two years.

The charity offers young homeless people individual learning support in a bid to help them access education and training or employment.

THE government’s failure to tackle the chronic housing shortage will mean nearly 90,000 children will spend Christmas in emergency accommodation, Labour said yesterday: here.

THE LIFE OF A HOMELESS COLLEGE STUDENT “[Sean] McLean is one of more than 58,000 homeless college students in America today, according to Free Application for Federal Student Aid data from the 2012-2013 academic year. The figure — which does not account for students who either do not realize they qualify as homeless (i.e., couch-surfers) or those who choose not to report their cases out of fear or shame — marks a more than 75 percent increase over the previous three years. Administrators and poverty advocates nationwide attribute the recent spike in homelessness among college students to several leading factors: a parent losing a job, a lack of affordable housing and rising tuition costs.” [HuffPost]